Sergio Chuc Drops CAS Appeal as CONCACAF Withdraws

Sergio Chuc

Former First Vice President Sergio Chuc has been sidelined from the F.F.B. for over a year. Since the deadlock between himself and Ruperto Vicente for presidency of the federation in 2016, the businessman has been actively acquiring support within the organization. Those efforts have been called into question by opponents who describe Chuc’s altruism to various football clubs as nothing more than bribery. In fact, those allegations are the very reason why he was disqualified from running in the foiled election. But Chuc hasn’t taken being benched from political action in stride; instead, he was in the process of filing an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sports. That claim would have cost him a minimum of thirty-five thousand U.S. dollars. So what is his fate tonight? Well, according to the football aficionado, this weekend’s unsuccessful congress basically clears him to run again in the near future. On Saturday, we asked CONCACAF representative Marco Leal for his position on the ongoing matter.

Reporter

“Now the Court of Arbitration for Sports, there’s a pending matter with the candidacy of Mr. Chuc. What is CONCACAF’s view of this?”

Marco Leal

Marco Leal, Director of Member Associations, CONCACAF

“We are not involved in that. It is a recourse that is guaranteed or permitted under the statutes. It is clearly stated, he’s coming within the structures of football so he has his right to go in front of the arbitration for sports.”

Reporter

“Is the decision taken by the relevant committee of the F.F.B. to not allow Mr. Chuc to participate. Is that something that CONCACAF looked at all for the soundness of that decision?”

Marco Leal

“Like I said, this was an internal decision within the authority of the competent bodies within the structures of Belize football. Mr. Chuc has taken the right to go and appeal that decision. I won’t comment on the legality of the decision taken by the electoral committee based on the recommendation of the executive committee of the federation. I won’t comment.”

Reporter

“All that aside though, is CONCACAF investigating bribery allegations against Mr. Chuc and other such allegations? That’s what we understood from the Secretary General Mr. Blease.”

Marco Leal

“I can tell you that at the moment we have no such investigations at CONCACAF because, remember, we need to be provided clear evidence that this has happened for us to start an investigation. Also, the higher ranking body is FIFA. So from CONCACAF, I can tell you that there is no investigation ongoing.”

Late this evening, Chuc confirmed that he is no longer proceeding with the appeal, since the failure of the congress to meet has given him a fresh start for candidacy.

Viewers please note: This Internet newscast is a verbatim transcript of our evening television newscast. Where speakers use Kriol, we attempt to faithfully reproduce the quotes using a standard spelling system.